Spoiler Thoughts:

So here’s the thing. For whatever reason, I lost the notes I made on a huge swath of gameplay, so we’ll just hit the high points of whatever I remember. On the upside, after this, I think I figured out where the screenshots were saved.

Chapter 3: Children of the Emperor

I’m glad we’re going to all this trouble to break out the Esh-Ka and recruit them for our army, when most of our troubles in the past have stemmed from trying to shove the Esh-Ka back in the slammer.

I’m not so sure I feel like the Rakata are so much more desirable than the Children of the Emperor, but I guess.

Good thing this ship must have more bedrooms than I can see, or the Rift Ambassadors are going to start having to double up.

Poor Senator Grell. Good thing he just updated his will with the Jedi Council.

Welcome aboard Nadia. I guess those AP courses you took let you bypass the whole eternity I spent on Tython with the Flesh Traders or whatever.

On to Voss. I would have to say, I think the Voss is one of the must frustrating races. They say they want to be totally neutral, but immediately seem to back the Sith whenever you turn around.

Then, when you save their bacon, they’re all “huh. That’s weird.” And then happily go on playing both sides until the Sith dupe them again.

The Voss might be a) self-absorbed and b) not that bright, is what I’m saying.

I’m glad no one in the history of the Old Republic has ever been able to figure out when something is just a trap.

Where is Ackbar when I need him.

At the end of the exploding ship trap, our kind-of romance interest Iresso escape podded it down to war-torn Corellia.

On the one hand, that’s a pity, and on the other hand, maybe it’s a good chance to break it off.

I feel like Nathan Fillion would have been a good choice to voice this freedom fighter guy that’s going to help us get Iresso.

But then again, I usually feel Nathan Fillion would be a good choice for a voice.

The big twist for this would probably have been more surprising if they hadn’t already shown us the big reveal in an earlier vision.

I never get that. Like with “The Prestige,” when I felt we were supposed to be all shocked and horrified at the end–but we SAW how the machine worked earlier in the film! Was everyone just supposed to forget about that by the end?

Well anyway, saved all the sleeper agents, including the infamous First Son.

The ending is a little bizarre, with a big ceremony after you liberate Corellia, and then you still have to sneak out past all these dudes that still are hanging around waiting to kill you.

Apparently they didn’t get the Big Fat Hero memo.

So that’s the end of the Jedi Consular class storyline, I guess?

While it wasn’t always riveting, and seemed like a lot of fetch and carry/fight missions, it did have a lot more story than I thought it would, and certainly was way better than I found it during the initial beta test.

It was interesting enough to make me want to go back and play the other class storylines as well.

The one bizarre thing was that it always seemed like such an ordeal to come back to the ship that I inevitably only did so between finishing planets.

Consequently, a lot of the companion content just came in a big bolus when I’d come back after liberating a planet, and then…nothing.

I don’t know if that’s how it was supposed to be, or if I just ended up making it that way because I didn’t get a chance to visit them regularly.

So then we did the intermediary missions “Crystal Ball” and “Rise of the Hutt Cartel” which were so exciting I honestly don’t even remember what the deal was with “Crystal Ball.”

Mostly I remember hating the fact that you would periodically get stuck doing Flashpoint missions or you couldn’t advance in the story.

I hate Flashpoint missions, even though they made them so you can solo them, because there’s no way to save and if you have to leave in the middle, or in fact, right near the end, it makes you do the whole thing again.

Plus, they seem buggy as all get out. A few times, after I died, my robot pal and my companion would periodically not resuscitate with me, or would start blinking out in inopportune times during the fight. Alternatively, the bosses would reset after I had almost defeated them and would keep abruptly reappearing with full health again.

Of course, these were always the boss fights, which means if I quit and restarted, I’d have to go through the entire Flashpoint again.

So neg on that.

Plus, I thought you could really tell that the budget for these was clearly a lot smaller than for the main class missions, since the planets were not fully rendered, but had sort of islands of territory you had to transport between.

Also the animation on some of the characters was pretty rough. Lana in particular always looked like they skimped on her face development a little.

I actually think there was another mission you could do before Shadow of Revan, but after starting it and realizing it was going to be another half-dozen missions before a bunch of flashpoints, I bagged it and moved on.

If the best encouragement Theo could give me to attack someone was “you’ll heal,” I might start thinking he didn’t have my best interests at heart.

Parrish seems like he’s going pretty easy on people trying to poison and electrocute him.

What in God’s Name did the guy whose superpower is changing colors think he was going to do against a Hellhound?

So you kind of tapped the guy trying to electrocute you against the wall, but fried the guy who was holding your wrist? Harsh, Parrish.

Man, Mason may need a new date for the prom.

Theo, if you want to recruit people for your pack, maybe perforating them with a steel bar isn’t the best opener.

Err…what?

Man, her hair is pretty curly still, for all that writhing around.

DEUCALION

I trust him.

Deucalion, giving out fatherly advice. He’s such a giver.

Scott isn’t the best spy.

Huh, I totally thought Meredith was dead by now.

Scorpion girl is pretty psycho.

You would think Kira would have read up on electricity after she discovered she was electricity.

All this whining and self-doubt isn’t really getting the job done, Kira.

It’s a measure of how messed up Teen Wolf usually is, that it never occurred to me how weird this scene where they just casually stroll through the room of cringing naked guys was until way afterwards.

In Beacon Hills, we call this “Tuesday.”

Maybe Meredith was just trying to say your skin was soft, Scott. No need to immediately start thinking everyone wants to get stabbed in the back of the neck.

Liam seems to be sweating it a little here.

It’s ok Liam. Just use all that energy you had when you TRIED TO KILL SCOTT.

Parrish seems like he’s probably a little occupied right now, with the impalement and all.

Poor paralyzed Deucalion. I trust him.

Theo, you have a better chance at Brother of the Year award than of ever getting Stiles to trust you.

Killing your sister =/= believing in Santa on the naïveté scale.

Valach could have at least put on Sinatra or something.

Poor Parrish is constantly waking up completely confused and horrified. And probably chilly.

Malia and Electroguy having the worst trust exercise ever.

Stiles and Theo are the Mulder/Krycek equivalent.

Theo: King of the Unconvincing Rationalization

Lydia would probably be more sympathetic to Valach’s sad history if he hadn’t just drilled a hole into her head.

Lydia is horrified at having to wear that ugly hat.

Posey makes the worst face here. Like he’s had experience lighting aerosol cans before and none of it was good.

Magekillers #3 continues Greg Rucka’s story of Tessa and Marius–mage-killing mercenaries set in the Dragon Age universe.

The third volume of this Dragon Age tie-in shows Tessa and Marius doing what they do best–reluctantly, and against their better judgement–helping the needy. With the introduction last volume of the omnipresent fade rifts in the sky spewing out demons, there is no shortage of people in peril or creatures bringing peril, and the pair barely hesitate to jump in between them.

This month, we seem to have returned to the basic structure of the first issue, in which most of the book is taken up by a colossal and dramatic fight, with Tessa doing voice-over exposition around it. While it’s of interest to learn about Tessa’s background, and certainly essential to set up the fade rift situation, the latter is knowledge that anyone familiar with Dragon Age Inquisition is likely to find pretty basic. The result is that the tale feels essentially like an extended fight with an interesting cameo fixing to take the pair into the next stage of their adventure at the end.

For me, this episode was a bit of a stumble. Besides the fact that most of it was Dragon Age Inquisition 101 for me (not their fault,) it hits my main beef with a lot of comics, in that it’s so serialized, the one issue doesn’t seem to contain a complete story. The art continues beautiful, but the battle action seems a trifle hard to follow and I was never totally sure how it finally ended. Even the characterization feels a little off as Marius later reacts more naively to Tessa’s jokes than you’d think a magister’s slave and lover would.

It’s still worth reading, in my opinion, if just for the insight into Tessa’s past and the glimpse at a familiar face from Inquisition…but if you had to skip one of the series, thus far, this would be the one.